Aired on Dec 3 at 11.05 pm, the MBC documentary ‘Tears of Africa’ is receiving positive responses for its narrator, Hyun Bin.

The chief producer said, “Hyun Bin has expressed deep interest especially in military documentaries. He agreed readily to our request for him to narrate ‘Tears of Africa’.

This documentary is part of MBC’s 49th anniversary special documentary series “Tears of the Earth”. Earlier star narrators included Ahn Sung Ki for the first documentary “Tears of the Arctic” and Kim Nam Gil for “Tears of the Amazon”.

When asked on why Hyun Bin was chosen to narrate, he said, “We decided to cast Hyun Bin because his voice has a feel of security.”

He added “We met Hyun Bin before Secret Garden’s broadcast. We are glad that Secret Garden’s high ratings have brought attention to our documentary too.”

Hyun Bin made the narration recording on Nov 26.

After the episode was aired, viewers said, “I didn’t know it was Hyun Bin. I thought the narrator was a professional voice actor.”, “He wasn’t noisy, he had a very calm voice”, “Listening to Hyun Bin’s voice made me more touched with the documentary”.

The production staff said, “You can feel the warmth in Hyun Bin’s voice. He has a voice that can emote and show the Africa that’s undergoing much turbulence now.”

Han Hak Su PD also sent a recording of Hyun Bin’s narration to Money Today , saying, “He looked really cool the way he is trying his best for the narration.”

Jang Hyung Won PD said before the broadcast, “When we did the first recording, I was really satisfied.” adding “Its his first time doing this, so it will be difficult, but he got used to it and became relaxed and started imbuing his own unique way of emoting into the narration.”

He continued, “After the recording ended, we felt that the first 5~10 minutes sounded a little awkward so we recorded it again. But after the broadcast, that part is now the best part of the program. I’m sure viewers can feel that he becomes better and better towards the end of the narration.”

(From left) Han Hak Su PD, Hyun Bin, Jang Hyung Won PD

Filmed with a budget of 120 million won, 1 year of planning, and filmed over 307 days, ‘Tears of Africa’ is made up of 5 episodes starting with prologue ‘The Land of Hot Raging Waves’ (Dec 3) and ‘The Red Winds of Omo Valley” (Dec 10). “Sahara’s Book of Revelation” will air next in 2011 Jan 7.

For those of you who got a little interested in the actual documentary itself ^^; here are some photographs from the official MBC site

The team behind “Tears of Africa”

Every year, elephants in the Sahara Desert often have to travel 450 – 600 km in search of water. Some collapse and die before they reach the water source. ㅜㅜ

This is 세피나섬 in Mozambique. I’m guessing it’s name in English could be Sepina / Sephina / Sefina (??) Island. I couldn’t identify the place on Google either, wondering if it’s this Island of Mozambique. It is gradually disappearing into the sea as global warming raised the sea level by 10-20cm over the last century.